Description of the organisation
The AWI is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (HGF). With a staff of more than 1000 employees, about half of them scientists, AWI conducts multidisciplinary research focussed on the Arctic and Antarctic, but is also active in temperate latitudes. AWI coordinates the polar research in Germany and provides the necessary equipment, infrastructure, and logistics for other German and foreign institutions performing polar research. The AWI was established as a public foundation in 1980 and has an annual budget of more than 100 million Euros, making it one of the largest polar institutes worldwide. The institute keeps the German federal government updated on its research results, and provides advice for the development of environmental policies.
Expertise particularly relevant for the project
Given the major role played by polar regions within the climate system, global change is a focal point of AWI. The multi-resolution ocean model FESOM (Finite Element Sea ice –Ocean Model, fesom.de) was developed at AWI and together with the atmospheric model ECHAM6 forms the core of the AWI-Climate Model (AWI-CM), which is used for AWI’s contribution to CMIP6, and in particular HiResMIP. AWI-CM contributes to the EU projects PRIMAVERA and APPLICATE (the latter is coordinated by AWI). AWI coordinates the HGF Initiative Advanced Earth System Modelling Capacity (ESM). The flexibility of the unstructured mesh models is a topic of intense research worldwide and AWI is at the forefront of this discipline. AWI has carried out measurements of CO2 and ancillary variables in the Southern Ocean since 1992 and sustains repeat sections in the Weddell region (Hoppema) and published extensively about it. Our group has expertise in numerical simulation of the marine carbonate system, marine plankton and iron chemistry (various publications by Völker et al.), in identifying climate-carbon and carbon-carbon feedback mechanisms (Hauck) and in combining observational and process studies with modelling. We have been partner in various EU-projects (CARBOOCEAN, CARBOCHANGE, CARUSO). In CARBOOCEAN and CARBOCHANGE, we contributed to the numerical study of feedbacks in the Southern Ocean and to data retrieval, quality control and analysis.
For more information visit AWI website.